Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
Autauga County Schools or ACS has increased their overall report card by one point over the previous year bringing their score to an 84 resulting in a B. The point increase comes from not only the graduation rate throughout the district increasing but the point increase also comes from a drastic downward trend in chronic absenteeism, Superintendent of Autauga County Schools Lyman Woodfin confirmed.
“Kids can’t learn if they’re not in school, right? That’s where it starts. Our parents have really worked with us as we’ve adopted some different policies and procedures. From the parents, to teachers, to students to administrators, I’m really proud of everyone here in Autauga County for all working together to help our kids, and it starts with keeping kids in school. The Graduation rate has increased, and chronic absenteeism has been drastically cut, and with all those things the district’s report card has gone up,” Woodfin said.
Woodfin also confirmed that at the elementary level, they have seen more A’s on the district’s report card than they have ever had before. In a report put out by ACS it states that the gains at the elementary schools are a direct result of the reorganization of the Curriculum and Instruction Department and focused efforts.
The report also states the reason for the point increase is due to the instructional consistency across the district, smaller class sizes, after school and summer tutoring programs, an increase in professional development teachers, students coming to school as well as parent and community partnerships.
“The biggest lesson I’ve seen with this report card is with the literacy and numeracy acts we see many more boots on the ground in the elementary schools. It’s allowed our teachers more flexibility in the classroom, and we’ve got to be able to find a way to replicate that model at the middle and high school level. I’ve got to find a way to get our administrators some help to get them in the classrooms to help our teachers at the middle school and secondary level. We look at everything we do from our expectations to how we’re doing to try and improve everything that we possibly can,” Woodfin said.
Some areas of improvement in the ACS report include implementing instructional coaches for positive impact at the middle and secondary school level and providing alternative education options for families at priority schools.
Woodfin stated that he is looking to continue and to further create a climate and a culture where kids want to be and want to stay after school to continue their growth. However, every penny has been allocated or spent from the surplus of funding due to Covid money. Those funds ran out in September of this year.
“The scary part is, we were able to target learning loss with programs. Some of these programs we won’t have the funding to continue. But the support that these teachers have enjoyed over the last few years with the addition of covid money we’ve made that as much as we can with the personnel and the programs that paid off the best in each school that we maintain that,” Woodfin said.
